From John C. Mannone, the new Liquid Imagination poetry editor:
It is my joy to begin serving as the poetry editor for Liquid Imagination. As some of you know, I come armed with a rich editorial background. I am the poetry editor of Silver Blade (2010-present), a sister venue under Silver Pen Writers, Inc. umbrella (http://silverpenwriters.org/). But also, I edit poetry for the Hugo-nominated semipro-zine, Abyss & Apex (Associate poetry editor, 2011-2014, Senior poetry editor, 2014-present). I have been a guest editor for various literary and speculative venues such as Subprimal Poetry Art, Eye To The Telescope, Inkspill Magazine, and even scientific journals like Radioastronomy: Journal of the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers (2006-2011).
Replacing Chrissy Davis, who has served as Liquid Imagination’s poetry editor from its inception, will be a difficult job. I am thankful to her for having accepted my work when I was a fledgling poet. My roots as a speculative poet are well anchored here. I wish her great success in her new endeavors. Initially, my tenure with Liquid Imagination will be as their interim poetry editor through 2017. If my workload permits, I may be able to remain long term.
So you might wonder what kind of poetry I will be looking for. Understand that although I appreciate genre poetry, I am not a genre poet, but rather a literary poet. Your submissions should be consistent with the aesthetics of the magazine, but also with my editorial focus: they should be literary, imaginative, and liquid. By ‘literary’ I mean literary quality writing with literary depth; by ‘imaginative’ I mean speculative in the broadest sense of the word, but I’m friendly to scifi, fantasy, surrealism, etc., whether light or dark; and by ‘liquid’ I mean fluid in the music of the words as well as in content—this is as hard to define as it is to hold water in the cleft of your hand.
To get a better feeling for my editorial focus, you should read (1) the interviews in Poetry Pacific (May 2014: http://poetrypacific.blogspot.com/2014/05/interview-with-john-c-mannone.html) and in Six Questions For…(August 2011: http://sixquestionsfor.blogspot.com/2011/08/six-questions-for-john-c-mannone-poetry.html), (2) the poems published under my tutelage in Silver Blade and Abyss & Apex, (3) my poems published online in various venues—simply Google my name; see a sampling at Songs of Eretz Poetry Review, where I am a Frequent Contributor; consult my collections of poetry, and (4) visit my website/blog, The Art of Poetry, http://jcmannone.wordpress.com. You can read my lit bio there, too.